Strejke mod Shell og Texaco i Honduras

Honduras: Shell and Texaco protests spark arrest threat against union chief.

The head of a Honduras trucking union faced the threat of arrest this weekend after leading a strike against two Western oil majors.

Four hundred riot police water-cannoned members of the ITF member union Sindicato Nacional de Motoristas de Equipo Pesado de Honduras, SINAMEQUIPH, and of two truckers’ associations as they held a stop-work demonstration on Monday 30 August at the countries’ international port, Puerto Cortés, blocking the road in protest against Shell and Texaco.

A warrant for the arrest of Erasmo Flores of SINAMEQUIPH issued yesterday cited charges of disrupting the country’s economy. Flores was detained after the protest for several hours alongside the leaders of the two other truckers’ organisations involved. He said they had been held in a cell "not fit even for pigs". Flores’ health has been affected.

Drivers, who currently receive the equivalent of US 66 cents per day, were calling for a minimum salary and protesting against Shell and Texaco’s four-year failure to pay a per-kilometre tariff that filters down to drivers and which has been established in a government-backed agreement. Companies who pay the tariff to drivers are being undermined, and have had to lay off workers, SINAMEQUIPH says. The union estimates that Shell and Texaco are better off by around USD 16 million (300 million Honduran Lempiras).

These events have united truckers, small- and medium-sized employers and other transport workers including bus and taxi drivers in Honduras, creating significant backing for the protest. The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), whose Latin American region chief Antonio Rodriguez Fritz is making an unscheduled visit to Puerto Cortés, has pledged support for Flores’ union.

"Who are the villains here?" Fritz asked. "The authorities in Honduras need to withdraw the charges against Erasmo Flores and address the real culprits - Shell and Texaco.

"It is time that these companies accorded the same respect to transport workers as they do to their valuable petroleum products," he added.

ITF 

For more information please contact:

ITF: Rio office, Antonio Fritz: +5521 81694327 London office, Sarah Finke +44 20 79409258 Honduras: SINAMEQUIPH, Erasmo Flores, (via his lawyer) +504 9723133 SITRAENP (Dockers’ union), Marcio Rojas: +504 977 9461.

International Transport Workers’ Federation – ITF: HEAD OFFICE, ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS,Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733, Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871. Email: mail@itf.org.uk

Date published: 5 September 2004. Date reviewed: not applicable. Source: press release

Urgent

For those who are able, it is important to send protest messages urgently, if possible before 3pm GMT, to the Honduran government and to Shell and Texaco. A suggested text and contact information:

Dear Sir:

My union is writing to support the protest of the ITF-affiliated organisation SINAMEQUIPH in defence of the rights of road transport workers in Honduras, and to express concerns about the failure of oil majors Shell and Texaco to honour government agreements affecting workers’ remuneration.

I understand that the union’s leader Erasmo Flores is to be arrested and I would urge you to intervene to ensure the charges against him are withdrawn and that a negotiated settlement, which involves the union, is reached.

Yours.

Please use the following contacts:

Honduran government:

LIC. RICARDO MADURO JOEST, President of the Republic of Honduras, Fax: +(504) 290-05-70

JORGE RAMON HERNANDEZ ALCERRO, Secretario de Gobernación y Justicia, Fax:+(504) 232-0226, 232-0275, 232-0231, Email: despacho_ministro@gobernacion.gob.hn

Shell: Sr. Oscar R Corbera, Shell Honduras SA, Fax: +(504)5500604

Texaco: Salvador Sanchez DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC & GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS FOR CENTRAL AMERICA REGION, +(507) 29-3444 (unreliable)or in Honduras +(504) 233 6353,556 8060,665 1021.